Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1887-03-18
ATTACKING THE FORESTS.
The Hills and Wales of Northeast
Pennsylvania Denuded OF
Their Timber.


A half century's nces SAINT onslaught
by sawmills and tanneries on the once
dense forests Of pine and hemlock in
the counties of northeastern Pennsylva-
MIA and the adjoining counties of New
York state has at last virtually ex-
hausted them. Out of 100 Immense
tanneries in operation fifteen years ago
there is not bark enough left to keep
more than half dozen in operation to-
day, and not more than one of these
can be run over three years longer.
Ten years ago this county (Wayne)
sent to market l25. 900, 900 feet of hem
lock lumber annually. To-day not more
than one-quarter of that amount is cut,
and. except in a few isolated cases,
where the timber has been left standing
for such an emergency, the product of
to day is of inferior quality The lum-
boring and tanning business has gone
to the western counties Of Pennsylvan Il,
where the hemlock and pine still cover
vast areas The sole-leather tanning
of the world is now almost entirely done
in Warren, Elk, Forest, and Potter
counties in this state, as il was a few
years ago in WAYNE, Pike, Susquchan-
ma. Luzernc, and Monroe in this state,
and Sullivan in New York.
Besides the pine and hemlock forests
that once stood in the region there were
hundreds of thousands of acres of hard
wood maple, beech. oak, and chest
nut. OF these the oak and chestnut
road ties and telegraph poles. TO say
nothing of the thousands of acres of
the finest specimens of their kind that
were sacrificed for cordwood before the
railroads and the people adopted coal
as the universal fuel. Until recently it
seemed that the splendid groves of ma
pie and the other hard woods were
to be ST ..red the systematic and un-
sparing onslaught that had swept tn C
hemlock, pine. oak. and chestnut away.
but there is no lon ger hope of that. 1t
is true that every year more or less ma
pie, birch beech, and Eastwood were
cut and shipped to markets where there
was demand for various purposes,
but now the war against them has been
carried into into the forest.
In all pats of the region extensive
establ ishments for the manufac ture OF
umbrella-sticks clothsepins, and SINH
lar articles for which the timber is es-
pecially adapted, have been erected al
points most convenient to the woods de-
sired. There are now in operation iif-
ty of these establishments all with inn
proved machinery for more rapidly re-
ducing the timber to the forms desired.
One of these factories where umbrella
sticks are the specially, but where eve
rything j. made into which the mate
rial not available for the speciality can
be turned, is a sample of the whole. Ii
is in Pike county. Il few miles from
this village. 1t requires the constant
work Of twenty-five men and fourteen
teams to cut and haul maple logs to
keep it running. This is not the most
extensive factory in the region, either.
Only the best maple wood is used. One
lumber dealer has just closed Il con-
tract with a factory to get out one mil
lion feet of choice maple plank for use
as fast rs he can furnish il.
This attack on the remaining forest:
of the region will denude its hills in a
few years The removal of the pin,
and hemlock has seriously affected the
water courses of the counties named.
as the disappearance entirely OF
streams of considerable size, and the
extaord nary diminishing OF larger
ones, amply testify. The Delaware
river was lower last fall than ever in
its history. while the sudden and dam
aging floods that follow storms. which
in former years would scarcely make
a rafting freshet. indicate what the de-
struction OF the forests has induced.
When the hard wood groves are gone.
the result to the water-supply. accord
ing to competent opinion, will be Sc
rious problem that will confront the
inhabitants of the region. -HaWleg
(Pd.) Cor NeD York Sun.